Florida's first established hospital (1878-1914), an NRHP-listed Springfield-neighborhood building that served Jacksonville through yellow fever, typhoid, and the Great Fire of 1901 and now houses the Jacksonville Historical Society's archives.
314 North Palmetto Street, Jacksonville, FL 32202
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Jacksonville Historical Society archives; check current visiting policies.
Access
Limited Access
Historic three-story brick building; interior access may have stair-only sections.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1878 · Florida's first established hospital · Home of Florida's first modern nursing school (1885) · Served through 1888 yellow fever and 1898 typhoid epidemics · NRHP-listed July 24, 1972 · Jacksonville Historical Society headquarters
St. Luke's Hospital opened in 1878 at the corner of Palmetto and Duval Streets in Jacksonville's Springfield neighborhood. The building was Florida's first established hospital and operated at this site until 1914. In 1885 St. Luke's established the first modern nursing school in Florida; the third floor served as nurses' quarters in the building's early decades.
The hospital played a central role in caring for Jacksonville's citizens through the catastrophic 1888 yellow-fever epidemic — when the building was taken over by the Jacksonville Board of Health on August 22, 1888 — through the 1898 typhoid outbreak among Spanish-American War troops staged in Jacksonville, and through the aftermath of the Great Fire of 1901. After the hospital relocated, the building had a long second life as a coffin factory and warehouse, hence the 'Casket Factory' nickname used for the adjacent building.
In 1972, the property was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. It is now owned by the Jacksonville Historical Society and serves as the Society's headquarters and archives. The Society uses the adjacent Casket Factory building for its annual Halloween event, embracing the lore that has grown around the property.
Sources
According to Jacksonville haunted-place compilations carried by Haunted Rooms America and Folio Weekly, visitors and staff at Old St. Luke's have reported apparitions of nurses traversing the halls and of confused-looking patients — described in retellings as carrying the marks of yellow fever and typhoid — wandering the upper floors. Early legends locate the nurses on the third story, which historically served as nurses' quarters.
The building's documented medical history is unusually rich: it served through the 1888 yellow-fever epidemic that devastated Jacksonville and the 1898 typhoid epidemic that swept the Spanish-American War encampments in the city. Its current owner, the Jacksonville Historical Society, has not officially endorsed the paranormal claims but actively programs the adjacent Casket Factory building for an annual Halloween event, signaling community comfort with the lore.
Reports are anecdotal and follow a long-running 'haunted hospital' folkloric pattern. The cited paranormal claims are not independently corroborated by documented investigation. The building's authentic historical weight lies in the documented suffering and care provided here during three of nineteenth-century Jacksonville's worst crises.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Tour the 1878 building that served as Florida's first established hospital and now houses the Jacksonville Historical Society's archives. The Society leans into the building's haunted reputation with seasonal programming at the adjacent Casket Factory.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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